Choice
by SilverCrystal Tears
Summary: She was given the choice before and she is given it again. If only he had stayed, maybe she would have chosen the same, but not this time. Character death,oneshot


**Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha**

**Summery: She was given the choice before and she is given it again. If only he had stayed, maybe she would have chosen the same, but not this time. Character death, tragedy.**

Blood seeped into her clothes and faintly she heard sounds of people racing around frantically. Everything was hazy, dreamy. What was going on? Why was everyone panicking? Her mind couldn't comprehend it.

Faintly, she felt the pain in her chest, in her shoulder, idly buzzing in her mind like a bee. Why did it hurt? What had happened?

Slowly, the memories came back to her. She had been coming back from her era to see Miroku and Sango, Inuyasha having disappeared to find Kikyo after Naraku had been killed, and Shippo going to learn to be a fox demon from Sesshomaru, and an arrow had hit her. She had killed the man, using her priestess powers her grandfather had helped her develop, but she had started to feel woozy. She had fired a shot into the air with the last of her strength, calling for Miroku and Sango, but after that everything was hazy, like now.

Where was Inuyasha? He had always been with her when she had been wounded. Where was he when she needed him? Kikyo. Of course it was Kikyo. In her drugged, wounded state, she couldn't dredge up the energy to feel the old sadness over his choice. It had happened, and she couldn't change it no matter how much she wanted to.

She felt hands on her, stemming the blood, but she knew it was too late. The arrow had been poisoned. She would die. That fact didn't scare her, like it once had. She had faced death a lot more than the average person in the past few years, going from one adventure to another, always with two purposes in mind: Find the shards of the Shikon Jewel and kill Naraku, the half-demon who gathered the jewels, killing anyone in his way.

She and her friends had hovered on the brink of life and death after they had used everything they had to kill Naraku once and for all and it had taken them there. They had made a choice, to live or to die, facing what they all feared in life.

Unbeknownst to her friends, Kagome had lingered there longer than they, having doubts about what there was left to live for. She had chosen life, in hopes that Inuyasha would choose her over Kikyo.

It hadn't happened. The moment he was sure he was fine, along with his friends, he had said his good-byes and had chased after the trail Kikyo had left after the battle. Her heart had broken then, broken to the point there was too many pieces to pick up and no glue strong enough to put them back together again.

It had taken all her strength, each day, to live, to make herself do the normal functions of a human. She had taken the jewel to her era and had secured it in the fires of Mt. Fuji, where no one would get it again. She had caught up with school, her family and friends, all with regular trips back to the Feudal Era to help Miroku and Sango rebuild the Demon Slayers village.

But it felt as if her heart had disappeared and in its place there was an aching hole of despair, which she battled each day with normal activities and memories. Slowly, the feelings of the real world faded and she again stood at the brink.

"Choose."

The voice asked again, for the second time in Kagome's lifetime. She looked at her life since her last choice.

Miroku and Sango were bringing in an income, they were married and Sango six months pregnant with her first. Shippo was in an apprenticeship with Sesshomaru to develop his powers. Inuyasha was kami knows where, having forgotten she had ever existed. Her family had Souta, who was entering the third grade, her mother with her job, and her grandfather in the peak of health.

They didn't need her. She didn't need herself. All her life was, was a battle against the aching hole in her chest and frankly, she was tired of fighting. She made her choice then, the choice she should have made a year ago.

She chose death. She felt her spirit lift from her body, heard a cry of despair, and then she was racing along a wind, flying to a place she knew or didn't know. She looked over the land, having traveled it for three years.

Some had changed, most had not. But for the first time in a year she felt free. She felt free of the despair and depression that had plagued her since Inuyasha had left. She was free, finally having made the right choice. The choice to die.

"Is it really what you want?" She turned and looked at a man. He looked like both Sesshomaru and Inuyasha, with dark silver hair, Inuyasha's amber eyes, and Sesshomaru's aura of power. His pelt was tossed over his shoulder and his eyes watched her with curiosity.

"Yes. What do I have left? Everyday is a battle to not give into the darkness and frankly, I'm tired of fighting." Inutaisho, father to Inuyasha and Sesshomaru, nodded as they sped along the wind; destination unknown, "I understand that. I too, was grateful when I embraced death.

To wait for my beloved Izuki to join me, to see my first mate, Silver, again. But I looked at what I had left behind: my eldest, bitter and angry at life and me, my youngest, not even a pup, to be raised by his mother for however long she lived. I left behind much, just as you do."

Kagome nodded and looked at the land once more. "I leave behind much, but they will be fine without me. Call me weak, but I just want to rest, to not wake up and wish to die, wish for him to return, for things to be like they once were. I want to rest."

Inutaisho nodded then put a hand on her shoulder, "look." They moved down, away from the current of air, down to a forest, one she recognized as where they had fought Jeromaru and Kageromaru. In one of the trees was Inuyasha. Kikyo was nowhere in sight.

Kagome and Inutaisho stopped in front of him and Kagome looked at him. There were lines on his face that hadn't been there before, weariness and sadness that was so foreign to her memories of him. He opened his eyes suddenly and looked around, as if sensing something.

He gave a sigh, one of regret and longing. "Kagome." She took a step back, thinking he had seen her, and then stopped. He looked into the distance and shook his head, "time to move." He leapt down from the tree, stretched, and started racing away, heading for a destination as unknown as hers.

"Ever since he found Kikyo dead for the final time he has wandered, too prideful to go back, to afraid to go forward. If you remain alive, you can find him, help him." Inutaisho left the question unspoken as they moved along a breeze, taking to the wind again.

Kagome watched the forest, where she knew he moved. She thought of their adventures, their travels. She thought of the battles they had fought and the lessons they had learned; and she shook her head.

"No. For three years I tore my heart to shreds trying to help him. I can't do it anymore, risk facing that pain again when he turns me away, even if Kikyo is dead. I can't face it, not again."

She turned to him, her eyes filled with her conviction and her decision, "will there be reincarnation? Or am I to go to the Underworld and reside there?" Inutaisho shook his head and they moved faster, the ground becoming a blur.

"You are a miko and thus will be reincarnated with your gifts. The time period differs, depending on the spirit, but you will be reincarnated. Make sure this is your decision, because we are almost at the gate of time." She nodded, sure in her decision, as they reached the ruins of Mt. Hakurai.

In the middle of the rubble, she saw a glowing green silver gate: the gate of time. Before entering, she turned to Inutaisho, "can you do me a favor? Please." He nodded, unsure of what she could want.

She walked over to him and whispered something in his ear. He considered, and then nodded. She gave him a tight hug around the neck, making his blush and smile, "thank you, for everything."

He nodded again and she turned, took a breath, squared her shoulders, and walked into the gate, her spirit disintegrating in the light. Inutaisho watched the gate close and smiled. One day he would enter, but not today. Today, he had something to do.

&&

The funeral was held for Kagome three days after her death. Sango attended, Miroku, Shippo, Sesshomaru, and Rin. Many of the villagers had too. Kaede had been able to get word through the well of what had happened but her family's reaction was unknown.

A gravestone stood above the freshly dug grave, saying her name and that she was loved. Kagome's friends cried and shared memories of her into the evening. When only Sango, Miroku, and Shippo remained, they stared at the stone one last time before turning to leave.

Out of the sky a lightning bolt zapped, hitting the stone. All of them whirled and watched the stone sizzle for a brief moment before dimming back to itself. The three walked to the gravestone and stared, for at the bottom there were words that had not been there before,

"_Death may have claimed me, but I am not gone. I will return again and maybe this time, my death will not be necessary to see what is right in front of your nose. Baka._" The three stared at the stone, then laughed.

They laughed long and hard and returned to the village to share with Kaede what had happened. Kagome may be gone physically, but spiritually, she still lived.

&&

Three years later Inuyasha returned to find Sango a mother of three, Miroku the medicine man for the village, and Shippo, the protector. He asked of Kagome, and was pointed to the Bone Eaters well. She was not there but he saw something a little ways away, just outside the tree line.

There he found her grave, and there he wept. But he read the words and smiled, though it was watery and sad. Like the others, he knew what was said was the truth, though he would not know how it had come about until later. He would just have to wait, just as Kagome had had to wait for him to realize who had taken his heart.

**The End **

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**_Chrys_**


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